Team-BHP - ARTICLE: How to protect your car from THEFT
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-   -   ARTICLE: How to protect your car from THEFT (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/owning-car/73489-article-how-protect-your-car-theft.html)

Picture this. You are on a day out with your family. After driving around all day, you settle in to enjoy a movie at your favorite theater, only to come back later to the parking lot and find your car missing! Or waking up one morning to find the car stolen from your own residential parking spot. All this may sound like your worst nightmare come true, but the fact is, car theft is a big business in India. Auto theft is a national-level racket that runs into crores of rupees. Team-BHP tells you how to prevent your car from becoming a mere statistic on police records.

What happens to cars once they are stolen?

Stolen cars from one state are usually sold in another state to unsuspecting buyers. Cross selling across states makes it difficult for authorities to track the cars down. Forged registration papers, supporting documents and a fake registration number are not difficult to procure in India. Often, used car dealers work hand in glove with car thieves, who frequently operate as part of a larger gang. In other cases, these cars are dismantled and individual parts are sold in the open market. Stolen cars can also be used in crimes and then abandoned. In such a situation, there is high potential of a legal problem to the actual car owner.

Which cars are the usual targets for car thieves?

Though a thief can target almost any kind of vehicle, the following cars are “hot favorites”:The above-listed cars find buyers almost anywhere in the country; this is exactly what thieves look for. Cars that are easy to sell and with minimum fuss.

Insurance first:
Keys & Parking:
Anti-theft equipment that works:

The first rule is to understand that there is no such thing as a “theft-proof” car. Hence, the key is to make things as difficult as possible for the thief, thereby deterring him from stealing your car. Make the thief move on to the next “easy prey”.

Lessening the appeal of your car:
Some other important points:

Some useful links:

Wonderfully composed and written Dippy. Food for thought " You can deter a thief from looking at your car as a target by doing things that would slow them down in committing the crime" .

A well written point by point assessment with suggestions and precautions to be taken!
Quote:

Originally Posted by Dippy (Post 1678809)
Keys & Parking:
  • Keep your keys to yourself : Don't let your car keys circulate amongst the building watchmen, car wash guys or even parking lot attendants. Keys have often been duplicated from a leak in this circle. Also, don't leave your car keys in the ignition, even if you are doing a splash & dash to the nearby store.
Anti-theft equipment that works:
  • Additional locks : We highly recommend gear or steering-to-pedal locks from a reputable brand. Not only do these locks make for a visual deterrent to thieves, but the high quality ones are tough to break. There are several options of gear locks (fixed permanently in your car and locks gear in position) and steering-to-pedal locks (one end attached to your steering wheel and the other to your clutch or brake pedal) available in the market.
  • Hidden master switch : Especially popular with the Jeep & Gypsy folk. Such a switch basically breaks the power supply from your battery to the ignition, or shuts off the fuel pump altogether. It is installed at a location in your car that's known only to you. Again, the key is to deter the thief as much as possible.

Keeping the keys to oneself is very important.The car wash chaps are notorious and there have been instances where they duplicated keys taking impressions on soap.
Additional locks to immobilise the steering/gear lever.
A hidden master switch can cause dizziness and nausea to car thieves who may have been optimistic all the way till they discovered that there is somewhere, a hidden, KILL JOY master switch.:Frustrati

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dippy (Post 1678812)
Lessening the appeal of your car:
  • Number etching : Etch the registration number of your car on the glass areas and a few other secret spots that only you know about. Etched registration numbers on windows are a deterrent to thieves (potential problem at "naka bandi"). Plus, this step will help you / the Police identify your car if & when it is recovered.
  • Buy a market dud : Cars like the Fiat Palio, Ford Mondeo amd Mitsubishi Cedia found few takers in the new car bazaar. Good news is, thanks to their dismal market performance, even fewer thieves are interested in these cars.

Number etching is quite a good method for identification.A friend's Honda Dio that was stolen had a huge sticker (white radium paper)with the letters D H O O M pasted on both sides.This information was passed on to the police who traced the scooter after nearly a month, while on the move, nabbing the thief.Such customisation also helps at times.
Buying a market dud is a cardinal rule. Other than being used for terrorism no one else will touch duds.
For instance my 1955 Landmaster cannot be the object of envy for thieves.The car cannot be started by anyone else other than by me or my mechanic.And my mechanic is so nice a person that he will rather than taking away my car, if possible, even gift me another Landmaster!:uncontrol
Another cardinal rule: I have used this umpteen number of times with excellent results in theft prone areas with my older petrol jeeps, cars and everything else that runs on petrol.If your car has a distributor take out the distributor rotor and keep it with you when you park your car in unsafe places.

Very valuable article Dippy. I wonder why wasn't this documented all this while on TBHP. The other perspective - there is so much that is basic and needs to be documented for the benefit of all.

I am a techno savage, so requesting others, it will be really nice if we can click pictures of gear lock, steering-pedal lock, etching, etc and share with all who live in smaller cities or are ignorant about these things.

One big deterrant is giving your car a unique identity. A visible identity. It could be a sticker, or some accessory, or a strip of colour, etc. Thieves try and pick up vehicles which are stock in appearance. Easier to drive away with just a change in number plate. So the differentiater should not be on the number plate.

Once again, thanks Dippy for the invaluable article for all car lovers.

Nice guide there dippy, I have a theft deterrent light installed in my car, Well, my car doesn't have an immobilizer,but the red LED light keeps blinking like the ones you see in cars with immobilizers. I was planning to paste a fake immobilizer sticker on the front windows:D

Looks something like this:

YouTube - Fake Car Alarm

Beautiful thread! And very very well written. Cover most of the points. Could someone shed some light over what are the general trends of the theives once they pick up a car ?

Superb thread, Dippy!

A very useful thread and I can already see myself go for one or more of the deterrents soon. 5 *'s for usefulness :)

very good suggestion and really practical.

Most important, never handover the key to unknown

An additional pointer:

Quote:

Originally Posted by dushmish (Post 1678970)
there is so much that is basic and needs to be documented for the benefit of all.

So true! Sometimes, its the simplest things.

Quote:

I am a techno savage, so requesting others, it will be really nice if we can click pictures of gear lock, steering-pedal lock, etching, etc and share with all who live in smaller cities or are ignorant about these things.
We'll have it uploaded soon.

Quote:

One big deterrant is giving your car a unique identity.
How about a polka dotted paint job :). But seriously, 'em weird and wacky modification jobs cars are probably the safest from theft.

Quote:

Originally Posted by prince_pervez (Post 1678992)
Beautiful thread! And very very well written. Cover most of the points. Could someone shed some light over what are the general trends of the theives once they pick up a car ?

The usual modus operandi of the car thieves is that they keep a watch over the car for sometime and monitor the activities of its owner. Once they get a chance they lift the car and fly away from the seen. In the time span of 5 to 10 minutes when the owner locks the car and leaves the spot they come into action. I myself has experienced such thing when my father's car a 5 month old Maruti 800 AC was lifted away in from of his eyes and within seconds they fled away. Later through the detectives(which we hired) we came to know that the car was hidden in the city and around 10 pm at night it crossed the city limit (border) and was hand driven to Nepal.

So many odd cars are transported to Nepal and then re-registered there.
Some cars meet their fate by being broken apart and sold in pieces.
That's the story of many of the cars stolen.

Great work Dippy:thumbs up. Very very elemental indeed. Yet the most obviously overlooked. There is a reason people flock tbhp for advice. This is one such example.

ok now this is good one. i need one sugestion from your side. i am buying a linea this month and it has a rolling code imobilizer so i will do most of these things, but would'nt a cover will add more security to it??


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